What you need to know

Android updates have been a fragmented mess for a long time, with some companies being worse at pushing them out than others. Motorola's been notoriously bad at releasing timely Android updates ever since it was acquired by Lenovo, but today, the company's reached a new low.

Back in August 2018, Motorola promised that it would be releasing Android Pie for a bunch of its phones, the Moto Z2 Force being one of them. This meant that customers who bought the Z2 Force on any U.S. carrier could look forward to the update, but a little under a year later, Motorola's backtracking and saying that it'll only release a Pie update for the Z2 Force on Verizon.

Delivering any Android upgrade is a complex process. For a variety of reasons, some US Moto Z2 Force models will not receive the Android 9 "Pie" update. The Moto Z2 Force model sold by Verizon will receive Pie as it is necessary to enable the 5G Moto Mod. We are committed to providing two years of Android security updates on all Moto Z2 force devices. While we always caution that our update plans may change, Motorola regrets any inconvenience or disappointment this may cause our loyal consumers.

So there you have it. The Verizon Z2 Force is getting Pie because Motorola needs to sell more 5G Moto Mods, but if you bought a Z2 force from AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile, your phone is perpetually stuck on Android Oreo.

I get that the Moto Z2 Force is over two years old at this point, but the fact that Motorola is rolling out Pie to one out of four carrier versions of the phone is a big slap in the face to anyone that bought it anywhere other than Verizon.